Jarryd Hayne has kicked a last-second field goal to hand the Gold Coast Titans a thrilling one-point victory over the Wests Tigers at Campbelltown Stadium, in a game that lived up every bit to its expectations.
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It wasn’t just the field goal though in a fantastic match from Hayne. He ran the ball with some real strength, looked dangerous more often than he didn’t and was generally good with his decision making in both attack and defence.
Unfortunately, the game may not be remembered for the brilliant spectacle that it was though, but rather a nasty tackle from Ryan James on Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco which is likely to have broken his jaw.
With finals implications likely to come out of this game, the Tigers had all the early running but couldn’t convert it into enough points to put the Titans away, and with some missed opportunities, including some in front of goal later in the game it would come back to bite them.
In fact, at one point the Tigers had completed 10 of 13 sets while the Titans were sitting on 1 of 3, highlighting the massive difference in possession between the two sides.
The early domination was largely thanks to Mitchell Moses who was fantastic with his kicking game early on in the piece, building pressure with a number of repeat sets, but when they came away with it only scoring a try and a penalty goal it was always going to be a tough ask to keep themselves going through the back end of the first half.
Full credit must absolutely go to the Titans defence, who probably set up the victory during that first 20 minutes.
It all kicked off with the fastest try of the year thus far as the Tigers went the length of the field off the kick-off, an Elijah Taylor offload putting Aaron Woods through the line before he passed onto James Tedesco, who was fantastic and then the final pass to Kevin Naiqama would streak away to score under the sticks.
Following the penalty goal, the the Titans would as mentioned defend well for plenty of time before Anthony Don scored their first try of the match. It came off an Anthony Don break from a poor Tigers set, and then a spread across the field with the final pass from Chris McQueen.
Following that was a try to Josh Hoffman who scored off a fantastic Ashley Taylor grubber that sat up perfectly for him.
The final try of the first half was scored by Anthony Don once again, this time off Jarryd Hayne who put up a bomb running across the face of the line before Don snatched it out of the grasp of Jordan Rankin.
While Hayne was fantastic during that first half for the Titans, their outside backs and Ashley Taylor did plenty in attack to ease the Titans into the lead.
The second half started out pretty slowly before the Tigers looked to start dominating again. However, a spread to right-hand side saw a tap on not handled by Kevin Naiqama before Nene McDonald ran the length of the field to score extending the lead to eight.
The Tigers would then answer back with an incredible try to David Nofoaluma with Mitchell Moses rushed into a grubber that Mead couldn’t handle, and the rebound went straight to the winger who crossed in the corner.
Just a matter of minutes later Nofoaluma was over again in the corner as he threw himself through the air from a long range break, and a few quick play the balls that stretched the Titans defence.
Because of their goalkicking though, scores were tied and the final ten minutes descended into multiple shots at field goal.
Both Mitchell Moses and Ashley Taylor missed two each, handing away seven tackle sets and good opportunities, before Hayne stood up with mere seconds on the clock, standing in front of Taylor to get the job done.
It’s a massively important win for the Titans, which keeps them in the finals picture and sets up for a couple of intriguing final rounds.
Final Score
Wests Tigers 18
Gold Coast Titans 19
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